Ruggiero stages New York hit 'The Other Place'

Joe Meyers

Published 1:21 pm, Thursday, March 13, 2014

Director Rob Ruggiero has been juggling two shows in New Jersey with his latest offering at TheaterWorks Hartford, "The Other Place" by Sharr White. Ruggiero will also be staging the 50th anniversary production of "Fiddler on the Roof" at Goodspeed Opera House (above) this spring.
Photo: Contributed Photo

Director Rob Ruggiero has been juggling two shows in New Jersey...

In addition to his duties as producing artistic director at TheaterWorks in Hartford, Rob Ruggiero has become a frequent presence at Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam (above) where he will be staging the 50th anniversary production of "Fiddler on the Roof" in June.
Photo: Contributed Photo

For people who work in the theater, busy times can be followed by long fallow periods, so director Rob Ruggiero knows better than to complain about his rather madcap schedule in recent weeks.

The artistic leader of TheaterWorks in Hartford has been overseeing his production there of "The Other Place," by Sharr White, while putting the finishing touches on "I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti" at the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey and getting ready for a big production of "South Pacific" at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey.

Doing his interview while driving to the George Street Playhouse, Ruggiero laughed as he recited his schedule for the upcoming week: "Monday night I tech `The Other Place' in Connecticut, Friday night I open `Spaghetti' in New Jersey, then back for previews in Hartford and a week from Monday I start rehearsals for `South Pacific' at Paper Mill."

Ruggiero will get some time off after "South Pacific" before starting work on the 50th-anniversary production of "Fiddler on the Roof" at Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam.

"It is a little crazy and the hardest moment of my year, but I wanted `Spaghetti' to happen because I really love that play," he said of a TheaterWorks hit that has proven to have a healthy life beyond Hartford.

Ruggiero said the juggling was only made possible by the fact that his staging of "The Other Place" at TheaterWorks was shared with the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, where the production debuted to strong reviews last month. The director has been adjusting the play to its new quarters in the Hartford venue rather than starting from scratch.

"The Other Place" received strong reviews in New York City in 2012 that allowed it to move from off-Broadway to Broadway.

Ruggiero said that as soon as he saw the show, he wanted to do it in Hartford.

"It was one of the best plays I saw that year. It's just so beautifully written and allows an amazing journey for a female actor," he said of White's tale of a medical researcher whose life begins to fall apart under mysterious circumstances.

"It's such a challenging play to talk about because you don't want to give anything away," he said of the many surprises contained in the story. "It's a family drama with a really unique sense of humor, but it is also dark and kind of a mystery."

The play begins with Dr. Juliana Smithton giving a lecture on her research, but then dissolves into a series of scenes she narrates. The trickiness, and the suspense, arises when the audience begins to wonder if Juliana is a reliable narrator.

"It's the kind of a play where first you take what you are seeing as the truth -- telling yourself, `OK I get it' -- and then the next scene wipes out that validity. It's funny, provocative, shocking, emotional -- all of the elements of a great play. But there's something very cinematic about the way the scenes flow," he said.

Ruggiero is grateful for the extra time he's had to work on the play, thanks to it being done in St. Louis, as well as Hartford.

"We rehearsed it and ran for three weeks there, learning a lot about the play. Then we had three weeks off, which gave everyone a chance to digest what they learned. Now we are able to go back in and do more work. I think TheaterWorks and Connecticut theatergoers both benefit from this arrangement. It's as if we had an extra out-of-town try-out run in St. Louis."

Ruggiero picked the play before he knew who would be playing Dr. Smithon, but had confidence that the role would interest many actresses in New York (the original production earned Laurie Metcalf rave reviews and a Tony nomination).

"It's a great play, so I had confidence it would attract great actresses. It was so exciting when Kate (Levy) came in (to audition) because I knew she had an immediate connection with the role. I knew without doubt that she was (my) Juliana," he said.